Black Lives: Freddie Gray and The Illusion of American Justice

The forgone conclusion that Officer Edward Nero would be acquitted for his role in the killing of Freddie Gray has now come to pass.

Justice for a Black person killed by police has once again been denied.

Given the fact that the case against Officer Nero appeared to be the weakest, are we really shocked he was acquitted by a crooked American “justice” system?”

On Monday, Circuit Judge Barry G. Williams did what most of us expected: he found Officer Edward Nero not guilty of all charges. Judge Williams said the state failed to prove their case.

“The state’s theory has been one of recklessness and negligence,” Judge Williams said. “There has been no evidence that the defendant intended for a crime to occur.”

While Judge Williams found that the defendant didn’t “intend for a crime to occur” isn’t it clear that one did occur?

There is no questions that Freddie Gray’s death was a direct result of the severed spine he suffered after being attacked, without just cause, by police who violently tackled him—and then proceeded to apparently subject him to further abuse with a “rough ride” in the police van. Not surprisingly, the police union is making the claim that none of the officers did anything wrong.

For them a Black man who has his spine broken, for the crime of running away from police, deserves it. This was probably part of the same rationale that led Officer Michael Slager to murder Walter Scott, in South Carolina, as he was running away. Officer Jason Van Dyke’s execution of Laquan McDonald shows a similar callous regard for Black life.

But the insensitive responses we get from these immoral police unions, who excuse the most egregious conduct of crooked cops, is not that far removed from the accepting silence and non-action of Capitol Hill.

The same politicians who are now courting Black votes have done nothing to arrest this epidemic scourge of police bigotry and brutality. And it is clear they will only act when Black America makes it very uncomfortable for them not to do so.

With alll of these murders and killings politicians refuse to demand accountability from police who abuse Black people.

Democrats are not much better than Republicans on this issue. While Republicans pretend there is no issue with police racism, only a few Democrats speak on this issue with any level of credibility.

Even worse, some Louisiana politicians are now promoting absurd hate crime legislation for those who attack cops. Some are making false accusations about some phantom uptick in crimes against cops. This claim is proven by the statistics to be an obvious lie since crimes against police are in fact on the decline.

Moreover, cops are given maximum legal protection already—unlike the Black people they take pleasure in assaulting and killing. But politicians, and wingnuts on the right, make a lot of noise about the supposed violence police face. Pundits like Bill O’Reilly make baseless claims that Black Lives Matter activists are somehow responsible for the negative light police find themselves in.

Incredibly, while these apologist politicians and pundits cry about some perceived injustice being faced by police they say absolutely nothing about the countless incidents where police clearly commit criminal assaults and murder.

When it come to this, these upstanding fakers all of a sudden become deaf, dumb and blind. The truth is: institutional racism in police has been clearly expose over the last few years.

Technology is a primary reason it is becoming harder for White America to argue that there is no racial animosity by police against Black people. Advanced video and cellphone technology has allowed regular citizens to capture police atrocities—the shooting of Walter Scott, captured by brave bystander Feidin Santana, comes to mind.

And even police videos are exposing the ugly underbelly of police interactions with African-Americans—as was seen in the Laquan McDonald snuff-murder video.

Keep this in mind: both of these cold-blooded murderers, Officer Michael Slager and Officer Jason Van Dyke, were both given bail by authorities in South Carolina and Chicago.

Would a murderer of police be given bail?The current controversy among San Francisco Police, due to the plethora of racist text messages that police freely exchanged among themselves has led to the removal of a police chief.

The texts exposes the institutional racism that is running rampant in these police departments.

Instead of showing their willingness “to protect and serve,” it illustrates the dehumanize mentality these officers have towards politically and economically marginalized groups—particularly Black and Latino people.

However, even in light of these events, politicians have taken no steps to address the issue of police violence. Some are now grumbling because of the prosecution of a few cops, like those in Baltimore. For them, nothing is wrong with killing Black people—after all, killing Black people is nothing new within American policing.

Sadly, the only reason we even get marginal media coverage about the murders and assaults of Blacks is because of the Black Lives Matter movement. This is why people are desperately seeking for a way to shut them down and shut them up. It also explains why apologist politicians and pundits say nothing about racist police while they continue to smear and slander the character of those who are fighting for accountability.

At the end of the day, can we say politicians and pundits want accountability against racist police?

How can anyone say that no one is accountable for the way Freddie Gray died? Initially, after his death, these same people were making the ridiculous claim that Freddie Gray severed his own spine. They dare tell us this even when we all saw the video where Gray clearly couldn’t stand up.

The trials of cops in Baltimore are a necessary starting point if police are to ever face accountability for their violent actions against African-Americans. Unfortunately, getting justice will no doubt take time—since prosecutors and courts will often do everything in their power to exonerate them. We’ve seen that scenario play out over and over for the last two years.

In Staten Island, prosecutor Dan Donovan seems to have done a similar thing for Eric Garner’s murderer Officer Daniel Pantaleo.

After subverting justice in Staten Island, Donovan is now a sitting congressman.In Ohio, prosecutor Tim McGinty blamed 12-year-old Tamir Rice for his own death—while also smearing Rice’s mother’s character—and finagled the grand jury which failed to indict Officer Loehmann who killed Tamir within two seconds of encountering him.

Although Tamir received no justice from the so-called justice system, McGinty was voted out of the prosecutor’s office by people pressure.

Politically punishing those who pervert justice and prevent criminal police from facing the consequences of their actions is one way for us to continue this fight. Truthfully, Black America should take a long hard look at the records of some of our so-called friends in the Democratic Party. Why aren’t sitting Democrats calling for a congressional panel on police brutality—as Chicago Congressman Bobby Rush has?

In Ferguson, Democrats Senator Claire McCaskill and Governor Jay Nixon co-signed the sham grand jury convened by Bob McCulloch—when it should have been crystal clear that McCulloch was biased and need to be recused. Are these the kind of “progressive” “change” Democrats we should believe in?

In this year’s 2016 Elections, the votes of Black America will be crucial if a Democrat is to be elected president.

If the Democratic Party can’t give us their platform now to combat police brutality against Black people what makes us thing they will do anything after the election?